As a portable terminal such as a mobile phone, a PHS, and a PDA, the foldable structure having two bodies connected via a hinge is well known. In such a portable terminal, generally an operation unit is set in one body and a display surface is set in the other body. Specially, the operation unit and the display surface are arranged on the facing surfaces of the two bodies to make possible that a user opens the terminal and enters some operation through the operation unit while watching the display on the other surface. In the other body, a display is also set on the back surface of the facing surface to make possible that a user checks the display on the back surface even in a folding state.
As this kind of portable terminal, for example, Patent Publication Laid-Open No. 2003-198685 (Document 1) describes a mobile phone which comprises three bodies: of which the first body and the second body respectively including the displays are linked with each other through a hinge unit and the first body and the third body including the operation unit is linked with each other via a hinge unit. When a user opens the first body and the third body in this mobile phone, the operation unit and the display of the first body are exposed to the user side and the display surface of the second body is positioned at the opposite side of the user. When the user opens first body and the second body from this state, the display surface of the second body turns to the user side while keeping the positions of the first body and the third body as they are, hence to enable the user to check the both display surfaces of the first body and the second body. Each hinge is formed by the orthogonal shafts.
Each hinge is continuously formed with the bodies and has a cylindrical shell portion projecting from the bodies. The display surfaces of the first body and the second body are respectively formed in the inner portions of the bodies excluding their fringe portions. That is, the display surfaces are positioned side by side with the fringe portions and hinge portion intervening in a state of stretching the first body and the second body.
As mentioned above, in the mobile phone described in Document 1, since the display surfaces are positioned side by side with the fringe portions and the hinge of the bodies, it is impossible to display one information throughout the two display surfaces and the display surfaces cannot help but display the information separately. Since the display surfaces are separated, there is a problem that a user has to move his or her eyes comparatively widely between the displays.